Embodiments described herein relate generally to a cell-based switch fabric, and, in particular, to transmission of groups of cells via a switch fabric.
Transmission of cells via a switch fabric (e.g., a multi-stage switch fabric) can be, for example, disrupted because of congestion at one or more queues (e.g., an ingress queue, an egress queue) configured to receive the data. In some instances, the disruptions can decrease data transfer rates within the switch fabric and/or can result in the loss of one or more cells due to buffer overflow. These problems can be exacerbated when cells are transmitted via the switch fabric on a cell-by-cell basis based on known switch fabric scheduling strategies and/or when the switch fabric is scaled.
Thus, a need exists for methods and apparatus for transmission of groups of cells via a switch fabric.